WASHINGTON – Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Monday that the U.S. handle on the coronavirus outbreak is “really not good” and that action is needed to curb the spread.

In an interview via Facebook Live, the nation’s top infectious disease expert said, “We are still knee-deep in the first wave of this. And I would say, this would not be considered a wave. It was a surge, or a resurgence of infections superimposed upon a baseline.”

New cases in the USA have reached record highs, climbing to about 50,000 a day. Nearly 3 million Americans have contracted the virus, and more than 130,000 have died, according to data from John Hopkins University.

Fauci, speaking online with the National Institutes of Health, linked the surge in part to cities and states that may have reopened too quickly.

“A series of circumstances associated with various states…